Section 1 - Timesaving Techniques and Other Tips

It never hurts to have a few tricks up your sleeve for saving time. Some of you may have even figured out by now that you can copy and paste entire rooms, textures included!

Copying Rooms

Copying rooms is simple and can save you a lot of time. From the EDITOR WINDOW select your “First Room X”.

1. Go to the PLAN VIEW window and drag a box around the light blue squares (DO NOT select the gray wall squares. This will add another row 20 clicks high to the perimeter of your room).

2. After you have selected your room, press the COPY ROOM button in the ROOM EDIT panel. Bingo, you just made another room. It should appear in the upper left-hand corner of the EDITOR WINDOW. Name this room “Dome Room X”.

3. Using the demo model as reference, right click to drag it down and place it about the same distance from your original room. You’ll come back to this room later.

Unfortunately, placed lights are not copied along with the room; but fortunately you can copy lights and paste them into your new room. If you have forgotten how, refer to Copying and Pasting Lights in the prior section.

Cropping (Bounding) Rooms

Another time saver and also very simple!

1. First, copy your original room again and this time name it “Cropped Room X.”

2. Making sure it is still selected, go to the PLAN VIEW window and drag a selection box that is 6 x 10 squares through the center section of the room (don’t select the gray wall squares).

3. Press the BOUND ROOM button in the ROOM EDIT panel. Your room has now been cropped to its new size.*

4. Move this new room down to the area between the first and second rooms you made. Take a moment to look at it in the EDITOR WINDOW. Turn off the textures and you’ll notice stretched texture panels on the new walls.

5. Adjust the panels as you did previously so that the textures will not be stretched.

*You can also “bound” a room larger in size by selecting squares outside the room you are resizing, but because the “new” areas will have a ceiling default of 20, it is often more trouble than it is worth! However, there are some instances where this feature can save you time.

NOTE: Make sure there are no objects whatsoever in any bounded section of any room which will be deleted!

Creating a Column to Break the Line of Sight

Just for fun, construct a big column in the center of “Cropped Room X.” (Actually, there is good a reason for putting a column here. After about 20 squares, the horizon begins to break up because not all the polygons can be “drawn.” The line of sight from the first room through the halls to the last room exceeds this 20 square distance, so breaking it up with the column is a way to resolve this distance limitation.)

Select the four center floor squares and press the green WALL button on the ROOM EDIT panel. You now have a column in the middle of your room. You will need to adjust the wall panels on the column but you’re a pro by now, right?